Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Branching Out Woodworks (+ Giveaway!!!)

Not that long ago, I wrote about my feelings of waste here. In short, I loathe it. I'd rather rip up an old flannel sheet and re-purpose it into cleaning cloths, or move the stained rug (thank you cats, again...) onto the porch, or give a beat-up dresser a fresh coat of paint than to ever throw things out.

Plastic bags reserve a special place in my waste abhorrence litany. They provoke my ire possibly more than anything else. And so, I try to use them, and reuse them, and then use them again as much as possible when I find myself in possession of them.

The handy dandy tool pictured above makes getting them clean in between uses so very easy (you know you can click on the photos to make them larger, right?). Locally made by Branching Out Woodworks, this bag dryer is positioned either horizontally or vertically once assembled. You then simply place your wet (but clean!) plastic bag onto it, wait for it to dry out and then, BOOM! POW! It's ready to be used again.

I love this device. It's so simple and yet so genius, all at the same time. To spread the love around, today I'm offering one small measure reader a bag dryer to use, use, and then use some more! To enter, simply leave a comment below telling me some small measure of your own that you take towards reducing waste.

Please, please leave means of finding you, should you be the winner, via either a link back to your blog or website, or by leaving your email address in the comments (if you'd rather not leave your email address there, just leave an anonymous comment, and then send me a private email with your information; I've yet to figure out another way of doing this). I'll run the giveaway through next Wednesday May 30th, midnight EST.

Together, let's lay to waste plastic bag wastefulness!!!

UPDATE: The winner of the Branching Out Woodworks bag dryer is Woolies! Congratulations!!! Thank you everyone for your entries. I loved reading about all of the small measures you're taking towards reducing waste!

67 comments:

Thank you for this giveaway! I've been asking my NC friends if they can take a trip to buy me one, since seeing it on your blog! To cut back on waste, we have stopped using paper towels in our house, using cloth instead.

We use glass for storage whenever possible and any cardboard from cereal boxes, etc. gets broken down and saved to light our wood furnace. We have not used a drop of oil in almost 8 years! Love the bag dryer, sure beats my present method of using old wine bottles LOL

We are working on being more mindful and less wasteful. We use canvas shopping bags to avoid plastic ones, I carpool to work with a colleague and we reuse all the glass jars and bottles that make their way into our home. This bag drier looks wonderful!

I definitely wash baggies, as well as use cloths for cleaning instead of paper towels. My most extreme "small measure" is probably that I have been known to wash aluminum foil (as long as it's not too crusty). That one got a look from the hubs. ;-)

I wash and re-use ziplock bags and would love a tool like this. I'd probably still catch a lot of grief for having some that are several years old still in the rotation, but at least I could stop hanging them on the whisk to dry.

Looks awesome! Our family could totally put that to use. One small way we reduce waste is something we do a LOT of especially in the summer--picnics with cloth napkins, reusable bags, and our own water bottles. We bring it, we take it home, we use it again!Sarah msslamast@gmail.com

One thing I've done this year to reduce waste is purchase a soda stream. I absolutely love seltzer, but hated seeing all the plastic bottles in the recycling bin from my seltzer habit. I now re-use the bottles, which are filled with water from my tap.

I'd love this tool, which would beat draping the bags all over random kitchen objects! To cut back on waste we switched to cloth napkins a long while back and take regular dishes and flatware on picnics. Our chickens consume almost any food scraps we generate and the blueberries are loving the coffee grounds the hens won't eat.

I would love to have this. I try my best not use plastic, but I find that when preserving time comes in the summer that I can't find enough room in my freezer to store everything using jars. So I use plastic freezer bags. This will help me to really re-use them!

We shop at our local coop and bring our own containers for anything we can. Our trash and recycling shrink more from doing this one thing than any other measures we take combined! Food packaging can be ridiculous.

My husband made one for me out of drift wood we collected on a beach vacation. He sanded and varnished it---basically it is five prongs of driftwood in a large, stable driftwood base. I love that each time I use it, I remember it is free, it is from a trip I like remembering, and it saves the environment and me when I use it to recycle not only freezer bags but milk bottles.

So clever - it would be a welcome tool! we are currently making lots of adventure bags made of old jeans (four kids, means lots of jeans past repair and lots of bday parties) for gifts. Thanks for the chance!Emmashelbear@live.ca

So, once in a while, at the supermarket, I check out using plastic bags - furtively looking around to make sure nobody notices. I bring them home. I use them for the dog poop. We have 4 dogs, so there is a lot of poop. I've thought about digging holes and burying the poop. Or buying biodegradable bags for the poop. But those are expensive. And if we bury the poop, then I worry that it would attract predators. So i live in a quandry about plastic bags. And the dryer thingy looks awesome. So I hope I win!You can find me here:buster.sugar@yahoo.comThanks!

I go through phases of refusing to buy plastic baggies and then realizing that sometimes you just need one...it would be great to have this drier to motivate me to wash and reuse more often. Perhaps I'll have to construct my own! Hugs,Angelaheyzillah@yahoo.com

The Good Wife has actually converted me into a plastic bag reuser, particularly Zip-loc style bags. She usually washes them and then hangs them on other dishes in the sink drying or over the sprayer, or over the paper towel holder, or over the faucet, or over.... you get the point. This would be so convenient and much more organized around the sink during that drying period.

I never buy plastic water bottels, i have a few metal ones that i use and wash. I use old ripped up sheets for cleaning cloths. I am re-using mason jars for candle holders at my wedding next weekend, which will then be washed and re-used again for more canning.

love your blog! and the keeeping chickens book....planning for a coop after next weekend :)

waste makes me crazy. especially food waste. you would not believe what stores throw out. i am a regular dumpster diver. i have found so many things, from 30 pounds of butter (put it in my freezer!:)) to dozens of cases of BOTTLED WATER (still drinking it) to live trees! we eat and use what we can, distribute any excess to friends and family and then usually donate the rest to food not bombs. we tend to find things in large quanities. like 3 cases of bananas or 50lbs. of onions. it's awesome..... :) p.s. for awhile i was finding unopened boxes of plastic garbage bags and sandwich bags, etc. this just made me sad and confused. my email: polaroidluv@yahoo.com

Less waste issue thing we're always working on. We started a compost pile last year and try to get our neighbor to dump some of his grass in it! Otherwise it takes too long to accumulate enough material. We are also bag washers so hazzah to an awesome rack.

Along with re-using plastic bags I have made several cloth baggies that we use for packing school lunches daily! This dryer would work much better than the system I currently use - which is to hang them over anything that allows them to dry!! donahalle@hotmail.com

Wow that's wonderful new tool! My husband hates it when I hang to wet/clean plastic bags everywhere on the kitchen counter. That thing would keep them all at the same place, and would probably dry faster.

We repurpose boxes into toys/storage around here. For instance... a kleenex box is now the match car garage, an old egg carton is now a School Bus, Highland Gaelic Ale box is the block corral. Jasper is the best repurpose inspiration we have ever had (on many levels). He loves recycling.

What an awesome giveaway! I'd love a bag drier like that... maybe i'll get one anyway even if I don't win. I always wash my ziplock bags until they fall apart, and drying then is the worst. usually i balance them on top of the washed glasses. This would be much handier!My small measure for reducing waste is a tie between cloth diapering and composting! Both are so easy and so rewarding :) Thanks again!megmeganjeanmiller@gmail.com

What an awesome giveaway! I'd love a bag drier like that... maybe i'll get one anyway even if I don't win. I always wash my ziplock bags until they fall apart, and drying then is the worst. usually i balance them on top of the washed glasses. This would be much handier!My small measure for reducing waste is a tie between cloth diapering and composting! Both are so easy and so rewarding :) Thanks again!megmeganjeanmiller@gmail.com

What a simple, clever idea! We reduce waste a lot on the purchasing end - buying second hand clothing and household items rather than new, and giving them away or donating them when they're no longer useful. :)

I use cloth diapers, cloth napkins. Everything in my son's lunch box is reusable. Even though we don't have recycling pick up, I collect and take it too a center. Would love to try out the bag dryer if I won.

I compost, recycle, buy used clothes, re-use alum foil if it isn't too bad.. Wrap all my lunches in re-usable containers. I would love to re-use bags and I do when they aren't too soiled. This gadget would be great instead of all the ways I try to dry my bags now.contact me at - hippycas at yahoo dot com or at casmahl66 at gmail dot com.

ooooo... I remember your first post about this thing and thought how I needed to get my own hubs to come up with something like this. Only his would have to be welded together, so needless to say we haven't gotten around to that yet...

About Me

Making an attempt to craft a good life with my husband and young son in a small mountain community. I find pleasure in the light at dusk, atlases, hard cider, cat antics, dog breath, baby giggles, homemade ice cream and snorty laughter.
Author of the "Homemade Living" book series (Lark Books) which showcases topics related to small-scale homesteading and some of the diverse ways people are reconnecting with their food and food communities and taking up sustainable food practices.
I also host a bi-monthly column every Friday on Design*Sponge:http://www.designspongeonline.com/category/small-measures.
E-mail me directly at: ashleyadamsenglish(at)gmail.com.

The Best LIttle Chicken Coop in Candler

"The Big Problem is nothing more or less than the sum total of countless little everyday choices, most of them made by us and most of the rest of them made in the name of our needs and desires and preferences."-Michael Pollan